"Donoschik 001"

[Steven Hill]

Dear colleagues:

Yesterday's discussants mentioned the famous Pavlik Morozov and his little-known kid
brother Fedia.  The two boys were brutally stabbed to death in a forest near the tiny,
backwoods village of Gerasimovka in 1932.

I recently read an eye-opening book by Iurii Druzhnikov, "Donoschik 001" (publ. in England
& the US a couple decades ago; finally publ. in the Russian Republic quite recently).
According to Druzhnikov, the crime itself, and the subsequent punishment (if memory
serves, 3 or 4 of Pavlik's uncles and grandparents were quickly executed for the double
murder) were not  nearly as open-and-shut  as the Soviet justice system's "official" version
of the case.

Many questions are now raised -- who really murdered the 2 Morozov boys, and what
was the motivation?  Druzhnikov even drops a couple of vague hints that Mama Morozova,
the estranged, perhaps demented wife of the boys' exiled father, could have been closely
involved in the double murder. (First in the entire chain of tragic events had been the
conviction and exile of   Papa Morozov, one-time chair of the "kolkhoz," for  alleged graft
and corruption; supposedly the son Pavlik gave evidence against the "kulak" father.)  But in
the Soviets' anti-kulak rush to judgment in 1932, plenty of clues and evidence pertaining to
the double murder were slighted over or mishandled, acc. to Druzhnikov  He considers that
the whole tragic episode remains unsolved to this day.

I was struck by one curious bit of trivia in Druzhnikov's richly researched & detailed book. In
interviews collected from Pavlik's old school chums & one school marm who'd actually
taught Pavlik in '30-'32, Druzhnikov indicates that even as  a 8- or 11-year-old schoolboy,
Pavlik still wet his pants. Figure out how THAT detail could have been incorporated into the
official Soviet martyrology.  Who knows, if Druzhnikov eventually brings out a new, 3d
edition of his book, perhaps he'll even spice up the title by renaming it "Who Killed the
Pants-Wetter?".

Steven P Hill,
University of Illinois (USA).
__ _ __ __ _ __ __ __ _ __ _

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Use your web browser to search the archives, control your subscription
  options, and more.  Visit and bookmark the SEELANGS Web Interface at:
                    http://seelangs.home.comcast.net/
-------------------------------------------------------------------------